MEPs, meeting in plenary session of the European Parliament, adopted at first reading (340 votes in favour, 316 against, 38 abstentions) on Tuesday 15 January, their negotiating position on the use of vehicles hired without drivers.
This vote, which echoes the European Commission's proposal as part of the first ‘mobility’ package (see EUROPE 11799), is in line with the position of parliamentarians already expressed last June (see EUROPE 12041, 12026).
It should be noted, however, that restrictions on the use of vehicles with a permissible gross vehicle weight of more than six tonnes registered or put into service in accordance with the rules of another Member State for own account transport, which a State may now impose on undertakings established on its territory, are returning here. MEPs initially advocated removing these restrictions, but an amendment by the S&D and GUE/NGL groups to include them in the text was approved by a narrow majority (349 votes in favour, 343 against, 6 abstentions).
It would seem, from our information, that the Commission has pushed significantly for this text to be voted on, in a particular context where tensions and uncertainties are very high in the Parliament regarding the social and market aspects of the first ‘mobility’ package (see EUROPE 12169). Proof of this is that the text voted on in June obtained a fairly comfortable majority, whereas the majority of this vote on 15 January was small (24 votes).
The EU Council is approaching an agreement. A draft compromise from the Romanian Presidency of the Council was discussed in the Land Transport Working Group on Monday 14 January. This is the same as the last one put on the table by the former Bulgarian Presidency of the Council a few months ago (see EUROPE 12036, 12028). While some States are still sceptical of the text, particularly for tax reasons, they would not constitute a blocking minority and Bucharest wishes to move quickly.
A final meeting of the working group, followed by a meeting of the Member States' ambassadors to the Union (‘Coreper’), should soon make it possible to reach agreement on the last points, in particular on the monitoring arrangements, before interinstitutional negotiations (‘trialogues’) can begin. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)